Montages Specifications of Realistic Programming Languages
P Kutter, Alfonso Pierantonio · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 1997
: Montages are a new way of describing all aspects of programming languages formally. Such specifications are intelligible for a broad range of people involved in programming language design and use. In order to enhance readability we combine visual and textual elements to yield specifications similar in structure, length, and complexity to those in common language manuals, but with a formal semantics. The formal semantics is based on Gurevich's Abstract State Machines (formerly called Evolving Algebras). Key Words: abstract state machines, language design, Montages, programming languages specifications, visual formalisms, modular specifications Category: F.3.2, D.2.1, D.3.1 1 Introduction In recent years, programming languages followed the trend towards higher levels of abstraction, combining in most cases modularity and object orientedness with simplicity and efficiency. As a consequence, nowadays it is hard to envisage a language which does not support encapsulation in some form....